Dolores Umbridge's Big Mistake
by Silverfawkes
Summary: AU oneshot Dolores made a Mistake she took the DADA job


Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns it, gets all benefits from it and only lets people like me play with it.

A/N: Yet another little plot bunny born of my children credit for most of this on goes to my Gryffindor daughter who hates Umbridge worse than Harry does.

Dolores Unbridge's Big Mistake.

Dolores Umbridge was gleefully sipping tea from her favorite rose china and reflecting how to tighten her grip on Hogwarts still further. She frowned slightly she still hadn't managed to break Harry Potter's will but she would. Today she had taken away his broom, she was debating the merits of destroying it but was reluctant to do so because it was exceptionally expensive and it could come back to bite her if she did.

Elsewhere in the castle Calliope Reynolds was soaking her hand in murtlelap essence. She was a sixth year Ravenclaw halfblood. Her dad had always taught her that for evil to win all it took was for good people to stand by and do nothing. She had stood by until today when she had seen the look on Harry's face as Umbridge had taken his broom. Umbridge had the right to ban him from quidditch but not from flying on his own broom a school broom yes but not his own. She had gone to the toad's office and said something and gotten her first ever detention.

For the last year things in the magical world had slowly gone to hell in a hand basket. Which argued for the conclusion that Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore were correct Voldemort was back and the current ministry was attempting to cover it up. Calliope wasn't like many in the magical world she would say his name but she felt discretion was the better part of valor. But to let evil win wasn't something she could do. She made up her mind, she wasn't a Ravenclaw for nothing. Umbridge might not be as big an evil as Voldemort but she was still an evil. An evil Calliope made up her mind to fight.

The next morning Dolores got a small pink parchment message in her owl post. It was unsigned and it was no one's hand writing she recognized.

_Dolores Umbridge, you made a mistake accepting the Defense against Dark Arts post at Hogwarts. It will be the last mistake you ever make because the position is cursed. That's the only reason an incompetent like you got the job. Beware. _

She glanced around her in suspicion. Then dismissed it because it was just someone trying to worry her.

A week later she wasn't so sure she had been on her evening constitutional around the grounds when a section of stone gave way from beneath her as she walked a trail so she changed her route to the grounds close to the castle. Only to have a gargoyle from the battlements fall and almost hit her. In both instances an investigation showed nothing and she had gotten injuries, minor to be sure but still.

Two mornings later she got another pink missive.

_ Toads have no place in the halls of Hogwarts if you know what's good for you you'll leave._

Dolores ignored the note. It was probably some student trying to intimidate her. Her money was on Harry Potter.

She might have been more worried if she had seen a message that was circulating through the school. It was simple only those students who disagreed with Umbridge to the point of being willing to act could even read it, to everyone else it seemed a silly but catchy limerick.

_ To those predisposed to **act **against Umbridge. She is a blight on our school and our society if we do nothing we condone her bigotry and evil. We should drive her from Hogwarts. Harassment is the least of what she deserves. Blood quills like she has used in her detentions are dark arts, the use of our blood is like an imperious. Should we standby and allow this evil? I urge you to act but with discretion do nothing that would endanger yourself. After all there are many ways to hurt someone that are not dark._

Umbridge had never felt more clumsy. She tripped frequently. Someone had sent her tainted candy but not all of it was tainted. Shortly after she enjoyed a nougat, her fourth piece from the box, she had a bloody nose that she had to go to Poppy to get stopped. She had had a headache relief potion in her cabinet that had been put in a vial that had not been throughly rinsed after it's last washing and the cleaner used had mixed with the potion to create a poison. Thank heaven she'd had a bezoar handy. She inquired, "Professor McGonagall are the rumors I heard some students discussing true?"

"What rumors would that be?"

"That the Defense professor ship job is cursed."

"Well I suppose if you listen to that kind of thing. Last year Alastor Moody was captured by a Death Eater and imprisoned in his trunk. And the Year before that Remus Lupin was forced out when his curse became public knowledge, the year before that was Gilderoy... He was hoisted on his own petard of course. He also came close to being attacked by a basilisk, the year before that was Poor Quirnus Quirell he was possessed and then he died... The students love to say the job is cursed but I don't believe in such things myself. Do you?"

"Of.." Dolores cleared her throat for real this time not one of her fake affected ones."Of course not." she answered inwardly trembling .

After that day Dolores got twice as paranoid. She slipped on the stairs going from her office to her classroom on the day that the house elves had accidentally left the windows of her classroom open and the water left on the stairs by the recent washing froze.

She would have worried even further if she had known That across the school more and more students were reading the hidden message.

Hermione Granger was handed the school wide limerick and found it interesting that she could see both the limerick and the message. She wondered who had done the work because it was a masterpiece of spell work. She showed it to Harry who was heartened by the fact someone else felt the way he did.

Dolores had been looking for a book in the library. When she over heard some students the next row over. "Put me down for two sickles on an accident. "

"You sure not assassination.?"

"I'm sure."

Four days later She was around a corner when she heard "Five sickles for victim of a curse." She hurried around the corner only to be confronted by a large group of students, with no way to know who had been speaking.

The accidents and the warning notes continued. She fainted when one of the suits of armor's axes fell and nearly chopped her in two. She began to dread the stairs using the internal floo whenever she could. That was until the day the floo powder in her quarters was replaced with gunpowder. It appeared that she was a target. Tightening her grip on Hogwarts didn't seem to be doing her any good the tighter she gripped it the more it seemed to run through her fingers. She had managed to drive the infernal Weasley twins from the school and shut down the student defense group and even managed to drive Dumbledore from the school. She was practically pulling her hair out. How would she deliver the school to dearest Cornelius when she couldn't go from one place in the castle to another without falling victim to some accident or another. Her ally Filch was in the hospital wing recovering from a accident of his own some bleach had been on the floor and a bottle of cleaner had slipped and dropped and broken to mix with the bleach. Filch and his familiar Mrs. Norris had barely escaped the resulting poison gas.

The next morning she got yet another pink missive.

_You really should have listened and heeded the warning._

Dolores felt ready to panic. She had tried to show aurors the previous notes when she brought them to the castle to investigate the accidents, but when she got the notes out all the small parchments had been blank.

That day she called the aurors yet again. Dawlish said "Very funny Dolores. The minister doesn't appreciate you trying to get attention this way."

They were at the top of one of the moving staircases and starting down when Dolores suddenly went tumbling head first down the stairs. if that wasn't enough the staircase was moving and she fell from the fifth floor to the Entry Hall. Dawlish investigated but ruled it an accident one of Dolores' high heels had caught on the edge of a stair.

As Calliope walked away she couldn't help but reflect just how useful a temporary sticking charm could be.


End file.
